Cananito

Royalty-free H.264

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 23:31:19 -0700

MPEG LA, the firm that controls licensing for a number of video and other standards, announced on Thursday that it will never charge any royalties for Internet video encoded using the H.264 standard that Apple favors, as long as that video is free to end-users.

There’s not much to say, just hope Adobe Flash dies fast.

iPod Touch & FaceTime, a carrier-free iPhone

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 14:22:55 -0700

iPod Touch & FaceTime, a carrier-free iPhone:

What he says (iPod Touch as a phone) is something I’ve really been looking forward to for a year or so. The problem is, to be reachable at all moments we need to be connected, either Wi-Fi or 3G. We spend most of our time on the first one I guess, but we’re not connected to it 100% of our time, so that means we still need 3G, and that just gets us back to a carrier.

Eric Schmidt is making Google evil

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 13:13:46 -0700

Eric Schmidt is making Google evil:

A must read, with this I can say Google is a place with lot’s of good people, but Eric Schmidt and Vic Gundotra are just making Google become the Microsoft of the past. This article just makes you realize how Steve Jobs is the best at all this kind of stuff, just look at what he said back in 2004 (interview with Steven Levy):

If that’s so, then why is the Mac market share, even after Apple’s recent revival, sputtering at a measly 5 percent? Jobs has a theory about that, too. Once a company devises a great product, he says, it has a monopoly in that realm, and concentrates less on innovation than protecting its turf. “The Mac user interface was a 10-year monopoly,” says Jobs. “Who ended up running the company? Sales guys. At the critical juncture in the late ’80s, when they should have gone for market share, they went for profits. They made obscene profits for several years. And their products became mediocre. And then their monopoly ended with Windows 95. They behaved like a monopoly, and it came back to bite them, which always happens.”

As you can see, today Apple is going for market share rather than profit by selling their products cheaper than ever and if rumors are true, start selling the iPhone in all the carriers they can. Google (Schmidt rather, Larry Page and Sergey Brin would’ve taken the company in another direction) on the other hand, now that it’s a monopoly, seems to be going for the profit with this kind of stuff.

This is evil in so many ways. Google is acting like if they were the internet itself. Schmidt went from Apple’s board of directors, to Android, to Open Handset Alliance, to this. They are supposed to be huge HTML5 supporters but yet they pushed Flash to Android. They are following carrier’s rules instead of changing them for better user experience like Apple has (if you read the Apple relationship with AT&T article you know what I mean). And the list might go on and on and on…

The weakness in "open"

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 18:38:00 -0700

The weakness in "open":

There’s a reason why a closed beats open. But there’s a couple more reasons:

OpenGL’s implementation on all Android devices is different and has different bugs, making video game development just hard.
Manufacturers fill the device with bunch of crappy software and even change the user interface thus making it normally a clunky experience.
The end user ends up paying the same as they would for a closed platform device, only manufacturers take advantage of this and end up having more profit and laugh at you.

I bet there’s a couple more. So much for open huh?

Skype with multitasking support now available for iPhone 4 and 3GS, 3G calls to stay free

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 13:21:01 -0700

Skype with multitasking support now available for iPhone 4 and 3GS, 3G calls to stay free:

This is the biggest news today so far, I’m so happy! And best of all, they’re dropping the idea of charging for using Skype over 3G!

Apple and AT&T relationship, and Telcel

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 15:43:47 -0700

Apple and AT&T relationship, and Telcel:

Loved this article from Wired magazine, I don’t know how much of it it’s true, but it seems credible. I’ve always believed that Steve Jobs doesn’t feel completely satisfied by AT&T, but he doesn’t have that many options. They rather have a GSM phone that works around all the world than a CDMA that works in a couple of countries. And frankly I don’t think T-Mobile could handle that many users.

So there are lots of things in there that point to a Verizon iPhone coming anytime between this fall to summer of next year, and I do expect that to happen.

On the other hand, here in Mexico Telcel is the carrier that sells the iPhone, I’m not 100% happy with it, but they are way better than AT&T for what I’ve heard/read since the launch of the first iPhone. Here’s a list of pros and cons Telcel has:

Pros:

Cheaper plans.
I never drop bars nor calls, always full 5 bars.
Overpriced pre-paid version of the 3G (not that exciting).

Cons:

iPhone is more expensive.
The iPhone plans are crippled compared to other phones they sell.
Although we are neighbors to the U.S. we always end up getting the iPhone (and now the iPad) ages later than them.
No tethering.
International rates are crazy, can’t afford to turn on roaming when I cross the border.

Maybe what Mexico needs is more visits from Steve Jobs…

IBOutlet syntax

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 09:35:45 -0700

Ever since I started learning iPhone development, I’ve seen all sort of different syntax and one that really got me thinking was IBOutlet, so I fired up an email to Jeff LaMarche:

Hi Jeff, I’ve seen 3 ways people write down the IBOutlet syntax:

1)
IBOutlet Something *something;
@property (nonatomic, retain) IBOutlet Something *something;

2)
Something *something;
@property (nonatomic, retain) IBOutlet Something *something;

3)
IBOutlet Something *something;
@property (nonatomic, retain) Something *something;

and I think I’ve seen a 4th one also:

IBOutlet Something *something;
no property.

Is there any difference in the first 3? Is the 4 one valid in some cases?

Thanks, fan of your blog/twitter, Rogelio Gudino.

I was lucky and got an answer from him:

Rogelio:

Actually, 2, 3, and 4 are valid, but #1 is incorrect. #1 (at least the last time I tried it, which was when IB3 came out) will parse into two separate outlets with the same name, leading to confusion.

#4 is the traditional, Objective-C 1.0 way of doing things, and it it still valid. Since the bundle loader will automatically retain the root elements of the nib, and sub elements will be retained by their owner, there’ no problem with not using a property.

#2 is the “preferred” way with Objective-C 2.0.

#3 is the way most developers did it early on with Objective-C 2.0. Then Apple’s sample code and documentation started using #2 and most people switched.

I could add two more to the mix.

5)
Something *something;
@property (nonatomic, assign) IBOutlet Something *something;

6)
IBOutlet Something *something;
@property (nonatomic, assign) Something *something;

Some developers are saying why bother retaining the outlets when the bundle loader is going to do it for us.

Hope that helps.
Jeff

So if you had the questions I did, I’m pretty sure that makes it all more than clear. I recommend reading Jeff’s blog, where you’ll be able to find more of him: http://iphonedevelopment.blogspot.com/

iPod Touch FaceTime

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 09:19:59 -0700

iPod Touch FaceTime:

Would love to see voice and text chat (although it’s called “Face”Time).

I’m pretty sure other non Apple products will adopt FaceTime soon, if combined with my first desire and 3G capable, this could easily replace any other IM service.

On the iPhone 4 Reception Issue…

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:37:51 -0700

On the iPhone 4 Reception Issue…:

“It feels to me like the issue is being overblown”, agree.

And a comment of the author, “I’m not doubting it’s a real problem, only stating that it doesn’t affect everybody equally, and among the people I’ve talked to, it seems to be a small percentage who are impacted enough to be concerned.”

iPhone 4 press conference on friday

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 18:10:57 -0700

iPhone 4 press conference on friday:

With that I confirm that Apple does care, they just take time to make the right decisions. Besides dealing with the death grip problem (which is not a big deal for me to be honest) I wouldn’t be surprised if they announced a CDMA version of the phone, unlikely though.

Apple acquires online mapping company Poly9

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 14:43:00 -0700

Apple acquires online mapping company Poly9:

That’s the second maps company Apple buys if I remember correctly, I guess they plan on getting rid of Google Maps on the iPhone, another step on my Google independence :)

EDIT: I remembered that there’s a framework called “Map Kit” that developers use to add maps interaction and stuff like that to their apps, it’s practically tied to Google, so Apple having their own maps framework would just give developers greater ease to develop their apps for sure.

Bing!

Sun, 11 Jul 2010 12:27:17 -0700

I’ve been using Bing for a couple of weeks now, and I have to say, I’ve had no need to go and do any search query at Google, using Bing both on my iPhone and MacBook.

Learning Objective-C and iOS development

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 01:53:24 -0700

It’s been a while since I started to learn (or at least try) Objective-C language and iOS (iPhone OS before) development. First I tried following online text tutorials and they were no good, then I came across the Stanford iTunes-U course, learned a lot but still not enough. Now a friend told me about this YouTube channel a couple of days ago:

http://www.youtube.com/user/thenewboston

It has various tutorials, I’m on the Objective-C one, almost done with it, so far it’s been sooo good, that guy explains really well. After I’m done with that series I’m moving on to iPhone Dev tutorial. Plus, he has forums, where everyone helps each other.

When I’m done with both tutorials I’m going to watch the Stanford course of winter ‘10 (already watched spring ‘09) and try to do all the assignments within good time.

iPhone 4

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 15:37:29 -0700

I’m upgrading, although Apple didn’t introduce some features Android is doing like wireless syncing, they’re sure leaving all other smart phones behind with the new screen, gyroscope and camera.

Things I would’ve liked to see:

End of AT&T exclusivity (doesn’t really affect me because I live in Mexico but it would help the iPhone a lot in the US).
Wireless syncing.
Portable Wi-Fi hotspot.
Voice input for the keyboard (across all the OS).
Faster browser.

I so want to be there one day.

Sat, 22 May 2010 19:03:51 -0700

[Flash 10 is required to watch video.]

I so want to be there one day.

I don't get Google

Fri, 21 May 2010 12:12:00 -0700

They want to push the web forward, but now they are supporting Flash. They are now using “open” as a marketing tool. This years Google I/O keynote was filled with trolling, cynicism, hate, evilness, irony, etc.

All this makes me want to stop using Google services, for now the only services I’ll be using is YouTube, Maps, Translate, Gmail and Search. That said, I’m really considering switching my mail and search though, not switching yet because mail account switching is a pain in the butt, and I can’t change my search provider in Safari, otherwise (taught I’d never say this) I’d be using Bing.

Back to sports

Tue, 18 May 2010 12:52:29 -0700

Yes, after 10 months of no aerobic activity, casual weight lifting and lots of beer, I’m back to sports. I already feel full of energy and way more healthy.

"I’m not saying you want an iPad or need one (or any of the upcoming tablets) — I don’t get..."

Fri, 14 May 2010 19:37:16 -0700

““I’m not saying you want an iPad or need one (or any of the upcoming tablets) — I don’t get commission. I’m just saying, what’s the big deal? It’s a computer and television and radio and newspaper and book and magazine and game console and Internet the size of a piece of paper and the width of a Mitch Albom book. It’s freaking amazing, that’s the big deal.””

- Joe Posnanski

Steve Jobs's Thoughts on Flash

Thu, 29 Apr 2010 12:53:14 -0700

Steve Jobs's Thoughts on Flash:

I completely agree with Steve Jobs, I think he really nailed it. Since the beginning of this year Apple has done great, there is no doubt Steve Jobs is on of the best CEOs out there, if not the best.

Elvis Finger Thumb

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 19:37:59 -0700

Elvis Finger Thumb